Judy Doll led a team of five local children investigators, ages 10-12, through the dank and forgotten spaces beneath the Portsmouth Brewery on Second Street, and Candyland on Market Street on Wednesday.

Doll comes from the International Peace Center, in Beaver.

“I was hired as an outside consultant to work with the outreach program, which is part of the prevention services through The Counseling Center,” she said.

Doll has created this program, called Culture and Word of the Month.

“This is the year they’re studying themselves as a culture and their family,” she said. “Since I helped set up Boneyfiddle years ago, I knew about the Underground Railroad. So I suggested that the media team work on this project.”

Doll led the children through the passages as they examined the structures, the rooms, the stone and brick, and then considered what they may have been used for.

“We are here to investigate downstairs in the basement Candyland, and we’re going to be taking pictures and filming. Because we believe that might be a passageway from where the slaves went,” said 12-year old Donzell Worthen, of Portsmouth.

The kids will present their findings during a press conference on Aug. 4.

The summer outreach program was created to teach local children about the history of Portsmouth and Scioto County through the images portrayed on the floodwall murals. The program is funded through a grant written by Community Action.

Robert Luther, of Luther Transfer, said he has been a scout ever since he left the military after serving in World War II. He has attended many National Jamborees throughout the years, he said, in places like New York, California and even in England.

Driver Mike Shuff was also a scout growing up in Dayton, now he continues helping them achieve their mantra — to always be prepared — by delivering their supplies to the National Jamboree in Virginia. Shuff will leave on Sunday and be waiting there when the boys arrive Monday, and he’ll drive back down when it’s finished to pick up the supplies and bring them all home again.

Luther Transfer also delivered all of the tents from North Carolina for last weekend’s Boy Scout Jamboree Shakedown, to prepare the boys for the national event.

The National Jamboree is typically held every four years, but the last one was in 2005. This one was delayed one-year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of scouting. To help put the Jamboree back on regular schedule, the next one will come in only three years. Among this year’s special visitors will be President Barack Obama and Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs” and “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel.

This is the Simon Kenton Council’s fourth time attending the National Jamboree since 1997.

More information about the Boy Scouts National Jamboree can also be found online at www.bsajamboree.org.

Hans Meintzschel, of South Shore, is retired from General Service and Supply. His company has performed oil clean-ups all over the world using an oil separation polymer called Elastol.

Elastol is a versatile food grade product manufactured by BASF Chemical, and it is EPA approved. It is often used in the production of chewing gum, but when oil is treated with Elastol, it becomes cohesive and enhances the clean-up using skimmers. Treated oil also restricts toxic water soluble products known as BETX (Benzene, Ethylene, Toluene, Xylenes) from dissolving into water, and will not let toxic gasses escape into the air.

“This is the most cancer-causing stuff,” Meintzschel said.

Once the oil and water have been separated, the oil will thicken and float on top of the water. Because the oil becomes viscoelastic, it is also resistant to wind and wave action and stays in generally one place until it is picked up.

“The water becomes a friend for us, because you can pick it up, you can vacuum it up, or we have skimmers,” Meintzschel said.

He has three large drum skimmers at his home in South Shore, capable of picking up 8,000 gallons of oil an hour, and leaving the remaining water is so clean you could drink it.

The collected oil can also be re-used, or recycled to manufacture tar for blacktop. Even better, the Elastol makes the oil more flexible; so if it were used in blacktopping, the pavement would not be as rigid and would not easily crack under extreme weight or traffic which often cause potholes.

“You can make hundreds and hundreds of byproducts,” Meintzschel said.

When the powder is mixed with sawdust, it be used in dumps and landfills to absorb toxic hydrocarbons from leaking gasoline and oil.

“Here’s the thing, right now there’s 100 tons in the United States, but it’s for a different purpose. The state of California puts it as additives in all their fuels because it reduces the emissions by 33 percent,” Meintzschel said.

But he says he has about 1,000 pounds of Elastol —?enough to treat about 5 million gallons of oil in the Gulf. It is unknown the exact amount of oil which has spilled into the Gulf since the incident began on April 20, but it is being counted by the millions by even the most conservative measures.

But time is against him, he said. The longer they wait, the more of those hydrocarbons that will evaporate into the air, which is toxic to the environment and to the fishermen working in the Gulf.

“When you put this powder on, it has to be fresh,” Meintzschel said.

If too much hydrocarbons escape, they will have to actually add more to the water before the Elastol can soak it up. That shouldn’t cause any additional damage to the water, however, as of the newly introduced hydrocarbons will be soaked up along with the oil.

“If we had put this down (already), we wouldn’t have the fish die,” he said.

Meintzschel submitted his plan to BP through their online submission form at www.horizonedocs.com on June 18. So far he has not heard back from them. At the moment, he said, BP is only treating the spill with dispersants which they also manufacture. That process leaves behind balls of tar which needs to be stored in toxic waste dumps.

“They won’t do it because it’s too simple. You wouldn’t believe how much money BP is making on that spill,” he said.

BP did not return e-mail’s from the Portsmouth Daily Times asking for comment on the status of Meintzschel’s submission.

On July 19, BP reported that they have spent nearly $4 billion on the Gulf spill clean-up project. They temporarily suspended the operation on Friday anticipating the approach of Tropical Storm Bonnie.

In June, the village laid off five employees and enacted an 50-cent per hour pay-cut on all remaining non-elected employees, all in an effort to cut $140,000 from its 2010 budget and avoid ending the year in a deficit.

Tom Spears, of New Boston, expressed concern for understaffed police and firefighters working without sufficient back-up.

“If they get into a little ruckus where there’s more than person and he or she is outnumbered, it’s going to be difficult to handle,” Spears said.

Spears also said the village doesn’t pay their police and fire employees enough for the dangerous work they do every day.

“I don’t know what they make, but I don’t think they make much more than $9 an hour. I think that’s mighty low pay whenever you go out there every day and every night and lay your life on the line. You could get shot in New Boston as easy as you get shot anyplace else,” he said.

Spears asked if there were any grants that the village could be applying for.

“Mr. Spears, we can’t even get money to get the roads repaired from the state,” Councilman Dan Fetty said.

“We can’t even get money from state or federal to get our levy systems done, and that’s going to cost millions,” added Village Administrator Steve Hamilton.

New Boston Mayor James Warren explained that municipalities everywhere are tightening their belts in our down economy. He said there has not been much state or federal assistance given to the village.

“If anyone has a solution for money, I’m wide open. The only way I know is you could go back to the public and ask for a tax increase, which I don’t think would go anywhere at this point in time. Our hope is future growth,” Warren said.

Fetty said some residents have asked him why the village can afford to purchase new mowing equipment, but cannot afford to keep its employees. He explained that the money used to purchase a new riding mower came from a separate Community Improvement Fund, and could not be used for payroll or personnel.

Spears asked if the village was giving tax breaks to people who don’t need them.

“No,” replied Councilman Junior Williams, chair of the Village Finance Committee.

Councilman Jon Mills said they would continue appealing to congressmen and senators for state and federal assistance.

“The state and federal government is just not letting loose down here for the village of New Boston,” Mills said.

The New Boston Village Council meets regularly on the first and third Tuesday of each month, at 6:30 p.m., at the Vern Riffe Community Center on Rhodes Avenue. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be Aug. 3. More information about village council — including council members, meeting calendar, agendas and minutes, and village forms — is available on the village website, www.newbostonvillage.com.

“We ‘shakedown’ to get all of the cobwebs out and find out what the kids know and what they don’t know. That also gives the boys the opportunity to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other so they can play on those strengths or play on those weaknesses to help each other improve. So by the time that we get to the Jamboree, the guys already know what they have to do and how soon they have to get it done, and it makes them work a lot better,” said Scoutmaster Phil Malone.

The three-day event at the Scioto County Fairgrounds gives the boys a chance to practice what they’ve learned as scouts, and familiarize themselves with different equipment.

While camping at the fairground this weekend, scouts were given a pop quiz by Mother Nature, when a storm rolled through the county Saturday morning. That turned out to be a valuable learning experience.

“Some of them realized they didn’t set their tents up correctly, but this is where we have that opportunity to make those kind of corrections,” Malone said. “For some of these boys, this is nothing new to them. They can camp in the rain.”

At the National Jamboree, troops are only allowed 6,000 square feet each, so they’ve tried to recreate those same limitations at the Shakedown this weekend. Troops also practiced their emergency procedures and learned how to adapt the difficult weather climates.

“This is how the boys learn leadership and learn how to work problems out,” Malone said.

This year will be the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts, and times have certainly changed. Today’s scouts integrate 21st century technology into their studies, learning about things like cell phones, GPS and geo-caching.

“It’s not just learning how to build a campfire. It’s not just looking at the night sky to determine what direction you’re heading. It’s using technology,” Malone said.

The National Jamboree is typically held every four years, but the last one was in 2005. This one was delayed one-year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of scouting. To help put the Jamboree back on regular schedule, the next one will come in only three years. This year, more than 43,000 scouts —?twice the population of Portsmouth — and nearly a quarter-million visitors will converge on Fort A. Hill in Virginia on July 26-Aug 4, making it instantly the 17th largest city in the state of Virginia.

Matt Reno, 20, participated in the last National Jamboree in 2005. This year he’s an Eagle Scout and he’s going back as Third Assistant Scoutmaster to Malone. He remembers lots of great activities, but said his favorite part was patch trading.

Malone laughed, remembering that Reno was always out trading patches when he was supposed to be doing other activities. After he asked Reno not to spend too much time trading patches, Reno agreed —?but the next morning’s scout newsletter had caught Reno in the act and published a photo of him still trading patches.

“But he didn’t do too bad for himself, because he traded for a Gold Pass, which gets you to the front of the line,” Malone said, laughing about it now.

Seventeen year old Eagle Scout Ty Johnson also attended the last Jamboree in 2005.

“I loved going down and experiencing the whole thing. It’s amazing how much stuff they had and all the different activities that the offered. I mean, they had things like scuba diving and all these wonderfully fun things to do down there,” Johnson said.

Both Reno and Johnson said they were excited to attend the 2010 Boy Scout National Jamboree in Washington, D.C, and participate in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts. The entertainment is being kept secret, but Malone said they will have a visit by President Barack Obama and Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs” and “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel. Rowe is also an Eagle Scout. Then there’s also the explosive fireworks display.

“The fireworks show has been compared to the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. it’s that huge of a show. Probably as big as any Fourth of July or special community fireworks show that you’d find in New York or in Washington or Red, White and Boom. It’s as good as, or better than, those,” Malone said.

The scouts from troops in Ohio and Kentucky representing the Simon Kenton Council will leave for the National Jamboree on July 25. This is the Council’s fourth time attending the National Jamboree since 1997.

More information about the Simon Kenton Council can be found online at www.skcbsa.org, and the Boy Scouts National Jamboree can also be found online at www.bsajamboree.org.

At an event at the Pickaway County Sportsman’s Club in Circleville, representatives of the Buckeye Firearms Association outlined the significant differences between the Democrat Strickland and his Republican opponent, the former Congressman John Kasich, on Second Amendment issues.

“Whether you are a hunter, sporting shooter, self-defense advocate or a gun owner, you have no stauncher ally than Gov.
Ted Strickland,” said Buckeye Firearms Association Chairman Jim Irvine. “His consistent, tested and proven support for individual gun rights is second to none.”

Pointing to his record of supporting rights for gun owners and his promotion of sportsmen activities in Ohio, Strickland said he was honored to receive the Buckeye Firearms Association’s endorsement.

“I am deeply honored and humbled by this endorsement,” said Strickland to the attendees in Circleville. “Like many Ohioans, hunting and fishing has always been a way of life for me and my family.
From my childhood in Scioto County hunting with my brothers and sisters, and through my life in public service, I have always supported sportsmen in my actions, my lifestyle, and my policies.”

Rob Nichols, spokesperson for the Kasich Campaign, promised the Republican challenger will see large support from supporters of the Second Amendment, and he accused Strickland of keeping company with people who are “hostile” toward gun ownership.

“Gun owners in general have a reason to be concerned with Ted Strickland, namely his close relationship with (Current Lt. Governor) Lee Fisher, who is on the board of Handgun Control, Inc., as was (Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor) Eric Fingerhut. These aren’t people who are sort of ambivalent to Second Amendment issues, these are people who are openly hostile to those issues,” Nichols said.

Nichols said Kasich’s candidacy has not yet been endorsed by any organization.

“It is still very early, and very few groups have issued endorsements yet,” he said.

Strickland spokesperson Allison Kolodziej said the governor was also endorsed by the National Rifle Association in June.

Her latest awardwinning short story tells the fictional history of a watch found in the 1937 flood, and she hopes its long lost owner will come forward to reveal the true story of this frozen timepiece. Her essay, “Flood Watch” recently won first place in the essay portion of the 28th Annual Area Agency on Aging District 7 Art, Poetry and Essay Contest. The story is inspired by a watch she discovered while going through the possessions of her late-father-in-law Frank Cooper.

“We found the watch in a drawer, in a box, and it just said ‘Found in the ‘37 flood,’ on a little note in the box,” Cooper said.

But that wasn’t all they found. Also on the watch was the name Mary Niece.

“Whether my father-inlaw even knew it had a name on it, I don’t know. I took it down to Morgan’s to have it cleaned, and they found the name in it,” she said. “I would like to find the true owner of the watch and give it back.”

Cooper still caries the old watch with her wherever she goes, even though it loses about 20 minutes every day. She was so intrigued by its unknown origins she decided to create one herself, and that’s how her essay “Flood Watch” was conceived.

“The story is about a family, and the little girl is real close to her dad, and the dad’s pride and joy is that watch,” she said. “Then the flood hits and takes everything they have, and she is so adamant about saving the watch for her dad. She grabs the watch as she runs out of the house to go to safety. She says ‘I saved your watch,’ but when she opens her hands, it falls in the water and is lost. Then they go back and are reclaiming their homestead, and as they’re raking and cleaning it catches on the tines of her fork and she finds it again and gives it back to her dad.”

Someday she would like to know the true story behind the watch, and she hopes that someone reading this will have more answers for her. Until then, she said her essay at least gives the watch some kind of a history and it brings out stories from other people who lived through the 1937 flood also.

She said anyone with information about the watch can e-mail her at wordweaver313@road runner.com.

Her next story is called “I Wonder,” and it is also about a flood.

Frontier officially claimed ownership of all Verizon land-line services in Ohio and 13 other states on July 1 in a deal totaling about $8.6 billion. Since that time. Frontier Communications Central Region President John Lass and Sr. Vice President Dave Davidson have been touring all of the Verizon stations in the state.

“We want to meet face-to-face with every single employee in the state of Ohio by the end of July. Thus far we’ve met about two-thirds of those, after today’s meeting,” Davidson said. “Since that time, John (Lass) and I, and our general managers have travelled the state, starting in the northwest corner and working our way around clockwise. We’ll finish up in the northwest corner again at the end of this week.”

Lass and Davidson are talking to employees about what changes they can expect to see from the company and its services.

Early in the deal’s working, some expressed concern for Frontier’s ability to handle Verizon’s customers and services.

“There was a lot of misunderstanding out there. Frontier was a very significant organization before this transaction,” Davidson said.

Incorporated in 1935, Frontier (NYSE: FTR) already had about 5,000 employees in 13 states. In closing their new deal with Verizon, the company has increased those numbers to 14.000 employees, serving about 4 million customers in 27 states. The acquisition now makes Frontier a Fortune 500 company.

The company will also be “re-patriating” about 500 jobs to the United States that Verizon had previously moved offshore. When local customers call Frontier, they will reach operators in Marion, Ohio, who are also familiar with southern Ohio.

“That’s really important because that’s feedback we’ve gotten from customers; that they prefer dealing with a domestic call center. We are in the process of making those changes,” Davidson said.

Former Verizon customers won’t need to do anything to continue their services, and Lass said there will be no increase in rates.

“Some future things people will see; we made a commitment with the state of Ohio that we’re going to increase the broadband availability to 85 percent of the customers by the end of 2013. So they’ll see some investments, and we’ll be building up the networks,” Lass said.

Frontier also offers bundled services for land-line telephone, high speed Internet and Direct TV television.

“We have a product line called Peace of Mind services. For instance, PC hard drive backup – we’ll provide those services to customers.
We also believe in great customer experience.

We want the customer to be happy on day one. We do things like full installs, and My-Fi TV which is a new service where people can watch TV over the Internet,” Lass said.

Davidson said one of the biggest changes will be that Frontier Communications will be an active and visible part of the community, represented by Southern Ohio General Manager Dave George.
“Dave will be widely known in the community.

He will be interacting with government officials, business leaders and community leaders.

We’ll be visible at festivals and participating in various events around the community. Plus, we look at each one of our employees as official ambassadors of the company,” Davidson said.

George said he is new to Frontier, but has been working in southern Ohio for five years and he is very familiar with the area and its people.

“I know what people expect from a company. They don’t want somebody that they can’t reach out and talk to. So as I’m going out talking to customers, they’re going to have my card and it’s going to have my cell phone on it, and when a problem comes up, I want them to call me so I can resolve the problem,” George said.

When local customers do call Frontier, they will reach operators in Marion, Ohio, who are also familiar with southern Ohio.

Lass said he was excited for the opportunity to serve southern Ohio and build relationships in the community.

“Welcome to the new Frontier,” Lass said with a friendly smile.

More information about Frontier can be found online at www.frontier.com.